By J. Edwin Skinner (author)
"An Alice and Wonderland-esque adventure sees Grin transformed and transported to a strange and dangerous world where he is the same size as the insects around him."
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An Alice and Wonderland-esque adventure sees Grin transformed and transported to a strange and dangerous world where he is the same size as the insects around him. Grin and his sister were grossed out and fascinated by videos on their father’s computer of water bears, an anticlimactic visit to their dad’s workplace to see the animals feed into Grin’s interest in insects.
He begins a study of flies that goes wrong, he is shrunk down to insect size and dragged into an unusual underworld with eccentric characters. Throughout Grin’s odd journey home he makes friends and enemies, but will his travels lead him home before his Dad’s birthday? Grin is a nice, young character around 11 years old that wants to make his dad, a rather stern doctor, proud.
His passion other than insects is playing the piano. Although he prefers the more “frivolous” music his mother teaches him, he learns the classical pieces to play to his father each night, working on a difficult piece as a birthday present. I felt that Grin’s family were perhaps a bit flat, his parents seeming very strict and traditional.
However, that does make Grin’s shrunken adventures more colourful in comparison. The Shrinking of Grin is an unusual middle grade adventure. Throughout his journey Grin learns more about the insects he showed a passion for studying in a way he would have never expected, while also coming to realise that the things he was doing were wrong.
This makes the book interesting for inquisitive readers that may share Grin’s curiosity around insects. The plot is a bit absurd and it puts me in mind of more dreamy stories like Alice in Wonderland. Grin moves through different realms and meets a lot of different characters. I did find myself a bit tangled up trying to establish and remember what type of creatures each new character was.
Although Grin is frequently trying to evade Scambus and Socco, they present some important lessons that extend beyond the story. I hadn’t really considered that sweet human foods draw insects but that it isn’t good for them to eat. Although on top of that, too much of the food that's addicting to ants like Gus aren’t healthy for us either.
Charlotte Walker, A LoveReading4Kids Ambassador
While Grin’s scientist father is disturbed by the unexplained disappearance of his research institute’s director, Magnus G. Musselman, Grin is more interested in emulating his father and sets his mind to conducting a series of crazy experiments: on flies. He cannot imagine the trouble this will land him in.
Literally cut down to size when he is faced down by a big fat bluebottle, he finds himself prey to a gigantic wasp and is only saved at the last minute by a huge frog that takes pity on him when he lands on a lily pad in the garden pond. Guiding Grin down through the depths of this pond, the frog takes him to a fabulously weird world called Quilibria with the promise of a quick fix for his situation.
Yet the fix is not as quick as he would hope in this strange new dimension, where nothing is quite what it seems.
But it is the only place where Grin can hope to find the solution to his sadly shrunken state and get back to his normal size. As he travels through Quilibria in search of the solution, he is met with one obstacle after another thrown in his way by a succession of weird creatures.
the best books for 9-12 year olds
A Feast for Pleasant Beasts
Clash of the Totems and the Lost Magaecians
The Keeper of the Stones
The Feather Follower
Available at Awesome Books Available on Amazon. While Grin’s scientist father is disturbed by the unexplained disappearance of his research institute’s director, Magnus G.
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed The Shrinking of Grin and determined it is suitable for children aged 9-10 years old
The Shrinking of Grin features in the following genres: Featured Books for 9+ readers, Indie Author Books , Recommendations, Fantasy / Magical, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational
Paperback. Not Available.
The Shrinking of Grin was written by J. Edwin Skinner and published by Independently published
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